Lily's Birthday dress

My grandniece, Lily, turned 1 year old on April 19, and I wanted to make her this dress from the Debbie Bliss Spring/Summer 2011 magazine.  This pattern was #14 and I made size one.  Lily is pretty small and I wanted it to fit her this summer.  Instead of the Debbie Bliss Eco Baby yarn I used Brown Sheep Cotton Fine: two skeins cotton ball and one skein in mint, with size 2 and size 3 straight needles.

This was an easy knit but since I started the dress in late March I knew I had to keep at it or I wouldn't finish.  The straight knitting stripes became boring especially since the fine yarn and small needles made the progress slow.  But I stuck to my guns and finished most of the dress by the day before the birthday party (which was on April 16).

Don't you know while driving with my mom to the party I was seaming and picking up stitches for the finishing touches.  Why can I never get it into my head that even though I've finished all the pieces, the seaming and finishing sometimes takes just as long as the knitting!  Ugh.  I apologized and told Sara, Lily's mom, that she would eventually get this pretty party dress.  I was happy that I joined the party and forgot about the unfinished dress and spent time with my family (instead of sitting in a secluded part of the house trying to finish the damn dress!)

I actually ended up finishing the dress a couple of days later after I came back home.  I had already picked up another project when my daughter Kate said, "Mom, I'll mail the dress to Sara if you finish it tonight."  Ugh, she knows me too well.  So I got the dress back out and finished it in a couple more hours.  It was actually finished on April 19, Lily's first birthday.  Kate put it in the mail the next day.  I'm hoping Sara sends me a picture soon of Lily wearing it.

Damn I forgot to block it.  There you go, perfection messing with my head again.

I would definitely recommend this pattern to anyone thinking about how cute it would look on a little one.  The Brown Sheep Cotton Fine was a very good substitute.  The pattern is very straight forward.  I would put it an intermediate beginner level because the yarn is fine.

Take care, Sue

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I'm wearing my new Box Cable socks for St. Patrick's Day.  I made them last weekend.

I used the Toe-up pattern by Ann Budd from Interweave Knits Summer 2007.

I love this pattern because it not only makes nice fitting socks but it is very easy to improvise different patterns.  On this pair I used a cable pattern from my VK Stitchionary for Cables. The Box Cable is #141.  I used the pattern on the 24 sts on the instep and then when I reached an inch beyond the heel I switched to 4st cable and 3 purl st rib.  I have also perfected the sewn bind off by Elizabeth Zimmerman.  This makes a stretchy top so that you can actually fit the socks over your heel!! You can find this method in any of her books.  I used the Knitter's Almanac.

I also made the socks a little bigger so that I could felt them a bit.  I love this wool for socks but if I don't felt them a little right before I wear them, they will felt A LOT the first time I wash them.  I ran them through with some pants and then hung them to dry and they fit really great.  

Happy St. Patrick's Day!!!  Wear your green socks!!!

Sue

Tangled Up In Blue or how to mess up the most popular pattern on Ravelry!!

So about mid-January I coveted (with the rest of the knitting world) Purl Soho's Big Herringbone Cowl designed by Whitney van Es. I wanted to use some stash that I had, a cotton wool, Cascade Sierra in light purple, because I knew by the time I finished it Spring would be here (although cowls will still be hot I'm sure).

My first attempt came out a wild mess ... the 17 needle was a bit too big and my stitches were ugly and uneven.  So I frogged (note this is frog #1 for whoever wants to keep count).  I went down to a 13 needle and after knitting about 10 rows the stitches looked great but the gauge was WAY too tight.  Stitches were supposed to be about 4 an inch and I had almost 5 and a half.  So I frogged again (#2) and cast on 290 stitches.  I was sailing along and then MY CABLE BROKE ON MY NEEDLE.  Cheap plastic crap!!!

 I was so frustrated at this point I put it down and made a pair of slippers.  It is freakin cold in Ithaca!!!

So I was telling my daughter about how much I loved this Big Herringbone Cowl pattern and I asked her if she would like me to make her one. "Yes," she said, "my favorite color is Cerulean Blue, like the crayon."  So I just got paid, so I went to my favorite LYS, Homespun Boutique, and as soon as I walked in I saw two beautiful skeins of Malabrigo worsted in what I think is pretty close to Cerulean Blue.

So I also bought size 15 needles and started my daughter's Big Herringbone Cowl.  The yarn was luscious and the color was amazing.  I got to about 4 inches.

It was coming out lovely.  Then the yarn started twisting around the cowl and while I was trying to untangle it I realized OH NO I TWISTED THE STITCHES ON THE CAST ON!!!!!  FROG #3 on Cowl #2!!!! And here is what it looked like after a frustrated frog - TANGLED UP IN BLUE ...

What a mess.  Well, this catastrophe waits for me on my kitchen table until I have a spare 72 hours to untangle it.  I'm sure there is a Frog #4 in my future.  God Bless all the lucky ravelers who are wearing their trendy Big Herringbone Cowls down a frigid 5th Avenue. I'm sure you look awesome. grrr.

Stay tuned. Sue